WESTON, Conn. (BRAIN) — Industry veteran Steve Cuomo is launching an e-commerce business that will start out with a narrow focus: bike tubes.
Bike-tube.net offers butyl tubes in a wide variety of diameters, widths and valve stem lengths. It also offers Vittoria latex tubes in 700c sizes. Retail prices start at $4.29 for most road tubes, with free shipping for orders of three or more tubes.
And that's about it.
"Seinfeld had a show about nothing. I have a website about air," Cuomo told BRAIN on Friday.
Cuomo has worked for Cannondale, Crankbrothers, Dahon and other brands. He remains product manager for Detroit Bicycles and continues to consult with other companies.
He'd been developing the tube idea for over a year before launching the site this month.
"I've been consulting for 16 years, and all along I've wanted to do something that was my own baby. This opportunity presented itself and e-commerce seemed very interesting to me," he said.
Cuomo said he started looking into the tube market when a friend was setting up a mobile bike repair business.
"I saw the size of market and I thought, 'there's got to be room for me to import tubes and sell them at a reasonable price and have fun at this,'" he said.
Bike-tube.net tubes are packaged with a silicone band instead of a cardboard box or other container. The tubes are pre-talced and the butyl tubes have .9mm walls. He's done some test marketing at local events and found that consumers really liked the silicone bands.
Cuomo said he wasn't concerned about a move toward tubeless tires wiping out his market. "You still have to carry a spare tube, right? And if you've had a spare tube in your bag for a year or two, it probably needs to be replaced."
Cuomo said he may add more related products to the website in coming months, but said he had no plans to offer tires.
"One thing I like about tubes is there are no model years," Cuomo said. "It's not like I'm going to get stuck with last year's tube model."
